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Thursday, December 13, 2012

Opinions and Observations: Pacquiao-Marquez IV

After
last year's unsatisfying result in the third fight of the Manny Pacquiao-Juan
Manuel Marquez series, where Marquez appeared to have boxed himself to a victory but
didn't win on the scorecards, both camps went back to the classroom in
preparation for Saturday's fourth edition. For team Pacquiao, Freddie Roach and
crew studied their successes in the first two fights, while Nacho Beristain and
Marquez conducted a thorough post-mortem on the third installment.

Each
side entered the ring on Saturday with its adjustments and variations.
Pacquiao's team ditched its attempt to win by boxing and returned to the
brawling style of the first two fights. In addition, Roach added some new
wrinkles: more feints and head movement. Although Pacquiao weighed in at a
career-high 147, his speed looked excellent, and it was clear from his
performance that this training camp featured a renewed focus on agility.

For
Team Marquez, its strategy in the third fight – single counters instead of
trading – had its desired effect inside of the ring, but not with the judges
sitting directly outside of it. The one-shot counterpunches reduced Marquez's
vulnerability to longer exchanges, which favored Pacquiao with his superior
speed and athleticism. Marquez and Beristain realized two additional things
from the third fight: 1. They might not ever win a fair decision on the
scorecards. 2. They had to go for the knockout.

For
the fourth fight, Team Marquez employed a strategy of blunt force trauma.
Marquez wasn't going to match Pacquiao's punch output or win every foray, but
he needed to end the fight before the final bell. In short, when Pacquiao got
hit hard, he needed to go down. That meant Marquez's counters had to be thrown
with malicious intent. Thus, instead of straight right hand counters, which
Marquez had perfected throughout his career, his emphasis needed to be placed
on maximum-leverage punches: overhand rights and looping right hands from the
outside.

Leading up
to the fight, Marquez undertook an extensive weight training regiment,
supervised by strength and conditioning coach Angel Heredia (also known as
Angel Hernandez, much more on him later). Using the eye test, Marquez entered
the ring more muscular than he had ever been in previous fights. Throughout
Marquez's career, his power had emanated not from God-given power or favorable
musculature, but from perfect punching technique. Now, with Heredia's
assistance, Marquez displayed Hulk-like biceps and shoulder muscles. However,
once the fight started, he didn't look stiff or unfluid, like many boxers do
when they overcommit to weight training.

The
fight started much faster than the last installment did. Pacquiao darted in and
out of the pocket and his legs looked very fresh. His feints confounded Marquez
at first and he also incorporated his right hook. Marquez lost the first two
rounds, but practically every shot of his went to Pacquiao's body. Yet, he
had not unloaded any big punches. He was trying to slow Pacquiao down and
set him up for later in the fight.

In
the third round, this series forever changed; Pacquiao went down. It was the
first time he touched the canvas in nine years. Marquez struck with a
picture-perfect combination: jab to the head/jab to the body/looping right
hand to the head. Pacquiao, who was moving away from the jab to the body, never
saw the punch from the outside. There was a simple explanation for the knockdown; Marquez brought a new girl to the dance.

It
wouldn't surprise me if Beristain, who is one of the ultimate students of the
game, took away something very substantive from Floyd Mayweather's win over
Miguel Cotto earlier this year. In that fight, Mayweather debuted a looping
right hand from the outside. Cotto had not prepared for that punch and he was
hit with it at will.

Marquez
had always been one of the best counterpunchers in boxing, using his left hook,
uppercut (right or left) and straight right hand. Pacquiao and Roach had seen
those punches before and had different degrees of success defending against
them. In fact, Marquez's straight right hand had been the only punch that had provided continued success throughout the earlier trilogy.

In
essence, Beristain used his knowledge of Pacquiao, the prior success of Marquez
and perhaps some borrowing from other fighters to put together a brand new
wrinkle. Pacquiao wouldn't expect a looping right hand because Marquez had
never thrown it in their previous fights. If you look at Pacquiao's hands prior
to the third-round knockdown, they were lowered a little because of the body
shot attempt, but they were straight in front of him. Most likely, he would have at least been
able to partially block a Marquez counter straight right hand.
However, prior to the knockdown, the whole left side of his face was exposed. He was not expecting anything looping.

Marquez'
knockdown combination was not the product of some sort of improvisational
genius. It was thrown so fluidly. You could tell it was practiced and perfected
in the gym prior to the fight. There was no hesitation or pausing to study
Pacquiao's reactions. Jab, jab and then bang.

Nevertheless,
Pacquiao pulled himself together and by the end of the fourth round, he scored
with solid connects. In the fifth, he got his revenge. In a brief trade, his
left hand beat Marquez's jab and Marquez staggered back with his glove touching
the canvas – a knockdown. In real time, that punch – and I don't say this
lightly – was blindingly fast. I've probably played the clip of that knockdown
20 times or so and I still can't see it unfolding without the benefit of slow
motion replay. For those who claim that Pacquiao's hand speed had slipped (and
I was one of them), that fifth-round round knockdown was certainly evidence to
the contrary.

Pacquiao
continued to pile on in the fifth after the knockdown. His straight left hand
repeatedly snapped back Marquez's head. By the end of the round, Marquez's nose
was busted up and he was bleeding profusely.

The
sixth round started out with more of the same. Marquez got tagged again and
again. He was badly hurt. It looked like he might go down again. As the round came to a close, Pacquiao attempted a crafty little
maneuver. While Marquez was stationed along the ropes, Pacquiao feinted with
the jab and then rushed in behind his jab....

WHAM!!!!!!!

The
next coherent image was Pacquiao face-first on the canvas, motionless
underneath the ropes; he was out cold. The fight was over.

What
the hell had just happened?

Marquez,
the expert of adjustments, didn't go for the feint. As soon as Pacquiao tried
to throw his jab, Marquez put all of his force behind an overhand right. The
punch connected at short range and Pacquiao collapsed.

What
Beristain and Marquez had figured out in their preparation for this fight was
that Pacquiao stayed in the pocket long enough to be countered with home run
bombs. Again, instead of the straight right hand counter, Marquez opted for a
punch thrown with more leverage and power. Team Marquez always knew about
Pacquiao’s penchant for running into the pocket. That was how they were so
competitive in the first three fights. The change in the fourth fight was the
type of counter shot they employed. Pacquiao, ever the risk taker, knew he
could withstand Marquez's straight right hand from past fights, but the
overhand shot proved to be a different beast entirely.

And
that was that. There was pandemonium, euphoria, a palpable sense of awe from
the crowd. Everyone knew that they had witnessed an unforgettable moment of
boxing history.

It
was shocking. I was yelling at the TV, jumping up and down like a little boy,
waking the neighbors. What a fight! What a spectacle! It was boxing, no, sport
at its finest. It was the highest of highs.

Instantly,
I went online and started posting and talking about the fight. My heart was
racing. It was the type of exhilarating moment that only boxing could deliver.

*****************************************************

And
then a strange thing happened as the euphoria of the knockout started to wear
off. My overwhelming sense of joy had transformed into something else:
skepticism.

A
nagging voice inside my head started to ask the following questions: Do 39-year-olds suddenly develop wipeout power? Was
Marquez clean? Was Pacquiao?
Was it just the perfect punch?

The
pleasure of the night had suddenly vanished, replaced by suspicion.
This was an epic moment in boxing and yet I couldn't enjoy it fully. And I
hated that.

Ultimately,
Marquez's decision to employ Angel Heredia, a confessed steroid dealer and
cooperating government witness in the BALCO scandal, affected my comprehension
of the fight's conclusion. Although Marquez had always been seen as an upright figure in
boxing, why was he consorting with a person with this type of background?
Clearly, he knew that this relationship would bring increased scrutiny of his
performance. Although Marquez came into the third fight with an improved body
under Heredia, his physique on Saturday was something entirely different. He
scarcely resembled the lightweight of two years ago.

In
the aftermath of the fight, I started to wonder about Marquez's ease in
obliterating Pacquiao with just one punch. Remember, Pacquiao hadn't been
knocked down in nine years. Now, strange things do happen in boxing. George
Foreman wiped out a number of fighters in his 40s, but he always had concussive
power. For Marquez, historically he had never been a one-punch knockout artist. He had beaten people up and eventually stopped them. But he had
not been one who suddenly turned out the lights of world-class fighters.

But
this is boxing – the theater of the unexpected, as the phrase goes. It could
have been just an amazing knockout. I hope it was. I want it to be. But I'm
also not entirely trusting. Not this year.

Earlier
in 2012, Andre Berto, Lamont Peterson, Antonio Tarver and Erik Morales all
tested positive for performance enhancing drugs (PEDs). Some names on that list
had sterling reputations before their failed tests. In all of those cases
except Tarver's, the fighters used testing that was far more thorough than
those of the state commissions.

For
Pacquiao-Marquez IV, the fighters submitted to the basic and flawed drug
testing of the Nevada State Athletic Commission, which allows elevated
testosterone levels as compared to other states, and doesn't test for synthetic
testosterone, HGH (human growth hormone, a synthetic drug which increases
muscle mass) or EPO (a PED designed to deliver increased oxygen delivery to
muscles).

Because
of the number of high-profile drug cheats caught this year, a confessed steroid
dealer surrounding Marquez's training camp, the fighter's advanced age and the
spectacular result of the match, it was difficult to avoid ruminating about the
specter of PEDs.

But
I wasn't just thinking about Marquez. In an ironic twist, the initial push for
increased drug testing in boxing originated because of Pacquiao's success.
Floyd Mayweather was incredulous of Pacquiao's reign of terror, when in a 30-month period he went
from beating junior lightweights to destroying junior middleweights, four
weight classes higher. Mayweather and others in his camp accused Pacquiao of
taking illegal substances. Pacquiao would sue Mayweather for defamation and
eventually wound up receiving a settlement.

With that said, Manny didn't help himself on this topic when he initially refused to submit to random blood testing
during the first round of negotiations for a potential Mayweather mega-fight. Additionally, once Pacquiao agreed to testing, there were all sorts of skirmishes between camps about the arbitrary end points of the testing prior to the fight. The
potential mega-fight never occurred as Pacquiao and promoter Bob Arum were
livid about being dictated to by Mayweather. (Drug testing was only one of
several issues that prevented the match from being finalized. Both boxers and
their teams deserve their fair share of the blame for the failure to make the
fight).

But Floyd was on the right side of the PED issue; it was not mere
gamesmanship. Time has vindicated his stance that there is a serious PED
problem in boxing.

Interestingly,
since Team Mayweather's accusations first surfaced in 2009, Pacquiao hasn't
knocked a fighter out. Before this current streak of six bouts without a knockout, he had never had more than three consecutive fights without a stoppage, and those were his first three bouts in 1995.

Ultimately,
suspicion of Marquez and Pacquiao, as well as other fighters, is not proof of
any wrongdoing. However, because of the lack of uniform and comprehensive drug
testing, this is boxing's current reality, full of unanswered questions about
illegal substances. Dopers and their enablers are much further advanced than
the testing protocols that the individual states employ. The absence of a unifying
governing body in the sport hinders its ability to address this problem with
the speed and decisiveness that it deserves.

Watching
it live, I loved Pacquiao-Marquez IV. It was epic and memorable, and all that
other great stuff. But a lot of my Sunday was spent wondering if one or both
fighters were even clean – and I really resented that.

Yes,
I want there to be a fifth fight between Pacquiao and Marquez, but there needs
to be Olympic-style testing. Pacquiao
and Marquez have an opportunity to help push for a cleaner sport. I hope that they
utilize their power and status to mandate stricter testing for all of their
future fights. At this point, they have already made vast fortunes in boxing.
For them, supporting stricter testing would not be
an act of great moral courage, but it would certainly set the right example for
the sport and the industry.